Also apparently this disease has rendered some of you incapable of polite discussion. As such, I have disabled comments for this article and disabled the offending responses.

I will finally add that since everything starts energetically, some of your RLS may in fact be more than physical – especially given some of the behavior recently displayed here. Karma is a bitch and there are no coincidences.

Selah.

There is just so much misinformation here. Where do we start?

First of all, RLS has been around much longer than the pharmaceutical companies (as others have mentioned), and it occurs in people all around the world (as others have mentioned). What I haven’t seen mentioned here is that it affects about 5-10% of the population. That is NOT a small percentage of people!

Second, there has been research on alternative medicine and RLS and for the most part, there is nothing that can be verified scientifically to work for a significant number of people. That said, there ARE non-prescription treatments that do help a lot of people, such as supplemental iron to raise ferritin levels. Also, sometimes supplemental magnesium or certain B vitamins can help. But rest assured that most of us with severe RLS have tried EVERYTHING POSSIBLE to treat our RLS.

Third, you suggest that we should just get off our butts and exercise more. Many of us DO exercise, but for many of us too much exercise aggravates the condition. Exercise certainly is not a cure, or even an effective way of relieving symptoms, except for the movement that is necessary to stop an acute attack.

You recommend listening to a meditation CD? For most of us with RLS that idea is simply ludicrous. Relaxation exercises will set my RLS off just about every time! I personally choose not to medicate myself to the point that I can do those relaxation exercises.

Maybe you have had good experiences with chiropracters, but I have not. I went to one for years, and his low tech x-ray machine didn’t show that I had a huge herniated disc that threatened to paralyze my lower body. When I finally went to a clinic, they did a CT scan and saw what I was working with. They recommended immediate surgery, and I asked if there were alternatives. I tried a physical therapy program where I put myself in traction every day, but it didn’t work. I finally had surgery and was 100% better within a few months. I injured my back again many years later, and my leg was paralyzed. I suppose that I just needed to see a chiro and do some meditation CDs for that? Sorry. Never again with the chiros.
I don’t know why I’m wasting my time writing all this. You seem to be determined to remain ignorant. But hopefully some other people who read this can be educated.

Signed,
The RLS Task Force )

Well, I’m kind of busy this week so, rather than be “insensitive” and ignore you, I’ll just make it brief.

1) Nowhere on this site do I claim to be a doctor. There’s a page which explains what “dok” is about. And if you were up on American political journalism of the 60′s and 70′s you’d catch the drift. You’re kind of grasping at things to attack with when you go this route – especially when the clues are there to be seen.

2) I went through agonizing back problems which caused side effects bad enough that “real” doctors wanted to do exploratory surgery to look for what was messing up my digestive tract, when they were done pumping me with antibiotics and making me really sick, of course. People to this day tell me I should have surgery instead of seeing a chiropractor because back adjustments “don’t work.” Right. These same people take pills every day for any number of “ailments.” Meanwhile, I simply don’t get sick anymore – not even a cold. If I didn’t live it first hand, I wouldn’t say it.

3) Just why do you think Big Pharma invested millions in TV ads for an ailment which affects a very small number of people? Put another way, how many people after watching those ads suddenly discovered that they had the “disease” of RLS? When in fact, they just are suffering from sitting around all day watching TV? Remember, the hook to calling it a “disease” is that it absolves you of blame. So, how many people are now taking expensive med’s they don’t need for an ailment they don’t have … all because they saw it on TV? Do you think it’s more than the number of actual RLS sufferers who suddenly found out there was a cure to their problem? Come on – be honest.

4) Why don’t you try *reading* my original article. While I express doubts about RLS, the real target is clearly Big Pharma – which funds the “foundation” and sells you all the pills. No, you’d rather read what you want to read and cast the whole thing as an attack on whatever you want to call yourselves – the RLS Task Force. The fact is that in our current culture the pharmaceuticals are trying to get as many people as possible to take as many pills as possible – that’s how they make money. I find the whole thing shameless. I also find shameless that doctors – with degrees and everything – won’t for the life of them recommend alternative therapies which are less invasive and have milder side-effects. Now, if you want to call that a “lack of empathy”, fine – I’d rather see someone get healthy without artificial garbage or surgery, and I’d rather see people learn that their bodies can health themselves if they give them a chance.